Ireland centre Chris Farrell has been passed fit for Munster having suffered a knee injury in last weekend’s win over Connacht, along with influential captain Peter O’Mahony, who was nursing a hip injury, but JJ Hanrahan (also hip) misses out.

Brian Scott (foot), James Cronin (leg) Jack O’Donoghue (knee), Dave O’Callaghan (foot) are all out for the Irish province, as well as Chris Cloete (neck), who returned to training this week.

More on the team news and build-up to the game in our live blog at the bottom of this page.

Key Events

Evans relishing Munster test

Gareth Evans is on the bench for Gloucester against Munster tomorrow and he’s enjoying being involved in the big games.

“For me, it’s very exciting, and these games are almost the easiest ones to get fired up for because it is exciting. You’re playing in the Heineken Cup against one of the best teams in Europe.

“It’s massive for me this game, For me in my position, I’m getting opportunities at the moment, and I’m playing regularly. So, I’m thrilled to be playing, putting a string of games together and put my hand up and saying I’m about.”

Road closure tomorrow

Message for fans

Verdict on the Gloucester team

There is no doubt they’ve missed him massively over the last few weeks so it’s worth the gamble to throw him straight back in after injury.

The longer he can stay on the field the better chance Gloucester have of overcoming Munster.

There were enough signs from the last meeting at Thomond Park - in which Cipriani’s red card effectively killed the game - that Gloucester have what it takes to come out on top at Kingsholm.

Ollie Thorley’s return is also massive. Gloucester didn’t have him in Ireland and if he can show his recent form it could be a big night for the young winger.

Gloucester are still without a number of key players, including captain Willi Heinz, Jake Polledri, Jaco Kriel and Ruan Dreyer, while they are short at hooker.

It will be a relief to see Franco Marais return but there will be a lot of pressure on youngster Henry Walker, who gets the chance to start.

The pack still looks strong and it will be interesting to see how Franco Mostert gets on in the back row.

It may be harsh on Freddie Clarke and Gareth Evans to be dropped but they could make a big impact later in the game.

Interesting though that Ben Morgan keeps the captaincy despite the return of Ed Slater to the side.

It is surprising also that there’s no place on the bench for Paddy McAllister or Matt Banahan with neither listed as unavailable.

Munster’s side is full of international quality as you’d expect. Conor Murray will be key for them with Keith Earls another player to start who wasn’t involved when the sides met at Thomond Park.

It should be a cracker and possibly another one to remember for the Gloucester fans under the Friday night lights at Kingsholm.”

Rob Iles, Gloucestershire Live Head of Sport

12:46

'A big challenge against a quality side'

“Having those losses were disappointing and not good for us. But my message to the players was that history can’t be changed and we can only control what’s in front of us.

We’ve learned lessons from the past two weeks and implemented them into our training to try and get better. But we’ve not been sulking about it. Friday’s challenge is massive and, if you go into it with a negative mindset, it’s not going to help.

We’re looking forward to a big challenge against a quality side and, after this weekend, we’ll know where we are in the pool. But we can’t worry about that, we just have to put in a big performance and let the result look after itself.”

Five-minute warning

Something to look out for...

Jaco Visagie was among the players mentioned as being a late call. With James Hanson and Franco Marais out injured, the only other fit registered hooker is Henry Walker.

Gloucester are not able to register any new players as they’ve made their three changes already but they can still register an emergency front row player, which could be Mullis if Visagie isn’t fit.

This is what the rules state:

In order to reduce the possibility of uncontested scrums, each club may also nominate further front row players, referred to as Emergency Front Row players, who may be registered with EPCR on a match-by-match basis provided that all necessary details of the players have been submitted before 12 noon (GMT) on 20 September 2018.

The provision for the nomination of Emergency Front Row players is not intended to allow clubs to improve the quality of their squads, and is designed to cater for illness and/or injury in the relevant positions. The players added to squads will typically come from a club’s academy or similar.”

Read more about the registration rules and Gloucester’s European squad here

11:09

There will be nerves

As a coaching staff, we were excited to qualify for this competition so we can get the Munsters and so on to Kingsholm. But I must be honest; there will be nervousness because the reality is we want to make the supporters proud.

And maybe we haven’t performed that well in the last few games where we haven’t shown the best of our abilities. So this is going to be a massive game, where we can put in a massive performance and show people we do belong at this level or it’s going to be one where we say we learnt a lot of lessons, but I think people don’t want to hear that anymore.

It’s time we do start learning, but we’re going to be up against a top quality side, they’re coached well and have top quality players.”

How to beat Munster

Can Gloucester do it? Former captain and coach Keith Richardson reckons they can. He said:

The Irish team is full of quality and deserve absolute respect. But the Cherry and Whites at their best will be more than a match for them.

When the sum of Gloucester’s parts come together, they look a formidable team. There has been progress through the first half of the season and consecutive league defeats do not consign them to the refuse bin.

There is enough quality throughout the squad to beat Munster, but the passion from the players will have to be obvious from the first whistle.”